Managing Patient Discharge Information

Although maintaining medical data electronically is highly advantageous, certain information—such as patient instructions regarding medications, work restrictions, and personal care—is more effective when printed. The standard Patient Discharge Summary Report pulls this information from several different areas of SYSTOC into a document that can be printed and given to the patient before s/he leaves the clinic.

When an appointment is flagged as Workers’ Comp, this report produces a copy meant specifically for the patient’s employer. It may contain some of the same information that appears on the patient’s copy, such as Scheduled Appointments and Referrals, and some additional information that is specifically useful to the employer, such as the times the patient arrived at and left the clinic.

Occasionally you may want to prevent certain information from appearing on the employer copy of the discharge report. For example, there may be restrictions on personal activities that have no relevance to the patient’s job, or health-related information that does not pertain to the immediate injury. Whether information appears on the employer’s copy of the discharge report depends, in part, on where in SYSTOC the information is entered, as this section will explain.